The Shepard and the Cherry Blossom
by Winged Lady Colette
Summary: The attack on Mindoir all of those years ago stole everything from Jane Shepard; her friends, family, fellow colonists, her basic understanding of everything, and nearly her life. That is, until a guardian angel appeared before her that fateful day with a premonition of her future.
1. Mindoir

**Author's Note: Hey there! Yep, I am writing yet another story! Don't think this means that I'm going to not be working on my other stories so don't worry about any of that. It's just something that I have been thinking about for a little while now and am really excited for the idea. It's not about to get in the way of my other stories. As with all of my stories, this won't be word for word, action for action with the real story. I update stories as I see fit, not on a set schedule, I'm sorry! I am open to pairings, so let me know! And also let me know what you think! Enjoy!**

 **Warnings: OOCness, language, murder.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

 **Word Count: 3,746**

 _"Run!"_

 _Obeying the terrified, hoarse screams of her mother, the teenage girl turned away from the scene; her mother, little brother and all the other families excluding older or able bodied men are being piled together into cages for transport by batarian slavers that hit their newly forming colony sometime during the night while the colony was sleeping._

 _The men littered the streets, dead or dying. They didn't want the men. Men cause problems. Men are strong. Men are dangerous. Just women, children, and boys up to their early teens. Too old and they're put down like men. All of her male classmates were put down. Boys who had yet to become men. Put down like sheep to the slaughter. There was no rhyme or reason for it. It was just senseless death._

 _An unstoppable massacre._

 _Somehow, by some form of luck, the teen had managed to slip away from the grip the slaver had on her. Her mother, disregarding her own safety, turned and slammed her body into the closest batarian to distract them from the newly freed teen. As they turned their attention to the wild woman kicking, screaming, scratching at biting at anyone who got close to her, it gave the teen a chance to run away from the center of their now seemingly tiny colony._

 _The girl wanted to stay. She wanted to fight as furious and hard as her mother was, but she couldn't. Her body refused to turn back around and fight, like her mother had, all she could do was run. Despite what her mother was going through to try and help her get away, the girl knew it wouldn't last long. Soon, they would be on her again with the intention of bringing her back to the fold. Capture her, like they were the rest of her colony's woman and children. Imprison her like the rest and give her a one way ticket to hell._

 _"Run, Jane, run!" Her mother's wails echoed off the buildings around her._

 _She turned down an alley, eyes widening when she heard heavy-set footsteps closing in behind her. Jane's eyes widened in horror even more as she did something she immediately knew that she shouldn't have done, she threw a look over her shoulder to see the batarian closing in on her quickly. Jane looked forward just in time to trip over a hole in the ground. She landed hard on her knees and chest, her chin burying into the dirt._

 _Jane quickly scrambled to her feet, ready to break into a run again but large hands grabbed the back of her large night shirt yanking on it hard. There's a loud ripping noise and Jane fell again, her hands flew out, whacking a nearby ladder, knocking over the ladder and a box of tools, bringing the batarian down with her. She scrambled again, crawling through the dirt to get away. Her blood roared in her ears like an angry krogan revving up for a rampage._

 _Something large wraps around her ankle, yanking her back. Jane's hand flew out toward the pile of tools, hand wrapping around the closest wrench, bringing it with her as she's dragged back to the batarian. She rolled onto her back, bringing the wrench above her head and to the side before she slammed it across the side of his face. He let out a roar of pain and pulled away. Jane jumped to her feet, giving him another whack for good measure before she turned and ran faster than she's ever ran before._

 _Jane ran through the twist and turns of their small colony until she reached the large chain-link fence that surrounded the colony. She quickly scrambled up the side, arms and legs burned from the exertion. But she pushed herself to the top ad over, before she dropped hard down to the dirt on the other side. She's beyond the colony limits. Past the land that the colony is built upon, she continued to run. Until she was out in the endless expanse of blackness. Jane was told, when she was young and they first came to Mindoir, that she wasn't allowed to go beyond the search lights. It was all uncharted territory past those lights. Little by little, they have expanded their territory on their new home._

 _Jane ran as far she could before she fell to her knees next to a dirt dune. Her breathing came out as hoarse rasps, before she fell to her side. She violently inhaled dirt. She rolled onto her back and coughed it out. She stopped moving and stared up at the stars. There was a rock sticking into the middle of her back. Her shirt had been ripped pretty bad in the back. She could still wear it, but most of her back was showing. But she didn't care. That was no where near close to being on her radar of shit to worry about at the time._

 _Once her breathing had finally evened out, she sat up slowly, then stood until she could see her home. There was a large carrier hovering over the colony with a hand full of drop ships on the group carrying Mindoirian prisoners up to the ship._

 _The teenager stared in horror as her life crumbled before her. It was like she was standing at a perch overlooking a massive drop into a pitch black abyss. Her life, her family and friends, everything that she's ever known is being poured into her fingers like water and slipping through so easily. No matter how desperately she tries to keep hold of everyone and everything she holds dear, it slipped away, falling into the darkness, forever lost to her._

 _Jane made a mistake. She shouldn't be there, a mile or two outside of the colony, watching as everyone and everything disappeared from her life. Never has she ever felt so completely and utterly helpless in her life. Jane was strong. She had lots of friends that followed her around and helped her out as much as she helped them and loved them as they loved her. She was independent and kind and was always doing things for others and having fun._

 _But now everything was falling away faster than she could stop it. Jane had no idea where her life was going yesterday when her mother was hounding her - again - to start thinking about college even though she was only sixteen, but now it looked like her life was going everywhere but where she wanted it to go. And that was with her. It's like her life and her were on two separate trains heading in two totally different directions._

 _Jane was on a train without a conductor and her life was being conducted by batarian slavers._

 _Her pain, anguish, confusion and desperation all whirled around her like a powerful maelstrom that could only be released by a scream so loud it echoed off the far off mountains. Her fingers tangle in her hair and it took all of her will power not to yank out the black locks. Anything to distract her from everything surging around wildly inside of her._

 _As much as she wanted to run back toward the colony and do... something to try and get back her friends and family, but she couldn't move. All she can do was stand and watch as more and more ships went to the carrier until the carrier disappeared into the atmosphere and was gone from sight completely. Jane didn't think she blinked once since she started staring. And at some point, she sank back to her knees in despair. Jane didn't know what to do now. She didn't know how to move on from this._

 _Jane let out another wail of pain, her voice cracking and fading as her breath ran out. She bent at the waist as she screamed until her forehead pressed into the hard stone beneath her. Jane's body went on auto pilot. It was early morning when she started moving but when she clocked back into reality, it was high noon as her foot slide on the dip of a steep slope and down she tumbled. She didn't know where she was or how she got there - well, she walked, obviously - but as she rolled down the slope, she couldn't think of a reason for her to still be alive at that moment._

 _Jane left everyone she loved to die. She didn't deserve to live. She didn't do anything that earned her the right to survive this. Everyone she knew and loved were being taken to god-knows-where to be forced into a horror that can't even begin to imagine._

 _Jane hit all manner of things in her decent. A bush, weeds, a few branches, a thorny bush and then hit a bit of a plateau overlooking a very steep drop with an undoubtedly sudden stop. Jane doesn't know if she believed in a god, but she wondered if something was out there, teasing her. Dangling this cliff out in front of her, dropping her next to it where she didn't have the will to move away from._

 _Her fingers curled up in the dirt as she started to cry. She cried for her friends and family. She cried for her neighbors and teachers and fellow classmates. She cried for the pain in her body and in her head and in her heart. She cried because she didn't know what else to do. There wasn't anything she could do and try as she may, she had no idea how to reverse the situation._

 _She just wanted to go back to the way everything was when she moved to Mindoir as a young girl. Where the world was large and amazing and her family was around her and all of the other colonists where there and they were all in this together._

 _Now she's alone._

 _There is a low groaning noise that pulls Jane slowly into awareness. She blinks the tears from her eyes as she sits up slowly, looking around for the source of that noise. There was another groan, this time beneath her. Jane looked down just in time for the chunk of earth beneath her crumbles away and falls into the darkness below, taking Jane with it._

 _As Jane descended into the darkness, her scream filling her own ears, she saw a bright blue flash of light, so bright she was blinded. by its intensity._

 _Jane was certain that she was going to die that day. At that moment, she knew it was all over. But then an angel appeared._

 _And Jane Shepard lived._

* * *

"Joker, set a course for Eden Prime."

"Aye, aye, Captain," Joker says through the intercom. The captain turns away from the screen to see the other two people in the room with him, folding his hands neatly behind himself, his narrow brown eyes look at the two in front of him.

One is a seven foot tall turian. His armor is typical for a turian, but all black with red lights and strips that accent the armor nicely. His plates are a chocolate brown color with his tribal markings being a shocking white against his dark face plates, making them stand out easily. The captain would never claim to be a turian expert but the turian before him has the most decorated markings that he's seen - at least in a long enough time of note - and it's hard not to be distracted by the design.

The other was a woman, taller than most of the others on the ship, but not nearly as tall as the turian, stands next to the brown and white faced alien. She had jet black hair pulled into a tight bun at the back of her head, bangs that go past her eyes are swept over to the left side with large sky blue eyes stare back at him. Her dark hair brings out the pale pallor of her skin, even in the dim light. She was in her typical black armor with a red and white stripe down the length of her right arm and the signature N7 on the shoulder.

"Anderson?" the woman calls out, looking over at him.

"Shepard," Anderson says, pulling himself from his thoughts to lock eyes with the woman in front of him. "I don't need to explain to you how important this entire mission is to humanity. Do I?" She shakes her head. "Good, get the team ready. Alenko and Jenkins."

"Sir," Shepard says, pushing her shoulders back a bit. She doesn't move right away, eyes sliding over to the screen with frozen image ingrained on it for a moment. The turian looks between the two humans mandible flickering a bit as if he wanted to say something when Shepard finally looks over at Anderson again, her eyes narrowed. "I'm going to ask her to come with me."

Anderson's eyes narrow slightly. "I agree that this would be the time, if any, to finally get her off of the Normandy, but you know her, she's particular about situations."

A crease appears between her eyes. "I know, but I've got a really bad feeling about this."

Anderson lets out a long winded sigh before nodding. "Go ahead and ask her, but don't expect me to go with you."

Shepard smiles, giving a single nod, before glancing over at the turian as if she forgot he was there. She gives the turian a single, respectful nod before turning around and leaving he room without another word to either men. There is a moment of silence that settles over the two men before the turian turns toward the human captain.

"So, is it safe to assume that this 'her' is the ghost that floats around on this boat?" the turian asks.

Anderson lets out a little huff. "That would be correct, Specter Kryik. She's quiet the slippery one."

"I like to make myself at least aware of everyone that I'm traveling with, yet people say that there is someone else here that I have yet to meet even though I've been with you all for the last week," Specter Kryik says, narrowing his eyes slightly. "But I'm assuming you know who this person is?"

Anderson nods. "I do, and she isn't anyone to be suspicious over. She's very personal and keeps to herself. You probably haven't seen her because she spends all of her time hanging out in the medbay with Doctor Chakwas. I hear that you've been avoiding there."

Specter Kryik stares at Anderson for a moment, as if thinking hard about something he couldn't understand. "I'm just going to say it," the turian says flatly. "This person is not part of the Alliance, is she?"

Anderson lets out a little sigh, nodding his head once more. "You would be right in assuming that, Specter Kryik. She's not."

"Then why is she on an Alliance vessel?" the Specter crosses his arms over his chest, staring down at the human captain suspiciously. "I'm not sure I understand. Is this standard Alliance protocol?" He blinks slowly, looking at him as if he didn't know what he was seeing.

Anderson shakes his head, sighing. "No. Not usually. To be honest, this is a special case, she's a special case." He hesitates for a moment, then looks up at Specter Kryik's for a moment, studying the tall Specter in front of him. After a long moment of debate with himself, Anderson says, slowly, voice low as if this was a top secret piece of information, "They _both_ are a special case. But you'll come to learn that for yourself." He hesitates again, then says, looking into the turian's green eyes and says, "There is very little time since her childhood that Shepard has been alone."

Specter Kryik's eyes narrow. "What does that mean?"

"Even if she's the only one you see, Shepard is usually never alone," Captain Anderson says cryptically, a crease forming between his eyes. "If you take Shepard on as a partner and Specter trainee, you get a two for one deal." His shoulders relax and he straightens up. "Now, we should head to the docking bay, Shepard and the ground team will be ready to depart soon enough."

Specter Kryik's mandibles flop a bit, as if he wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say. His eyes narrow dangerously as the human Captain slips past him and out of the room. Specter Kryik frown unhappily and suspiciously. He doesn't like not knowing what's going on. He doesn't know how he feels about this situation at all. He doesn't like being surrounded by a sea of unknown.

Admittedly, he did walk into this situation knowing that he'd be making it up on the fly but since the day he's stepped onto the Normandy, everyone has been whispering about Shepard's ghost. The person that's not on the roster but seen walking the ship. Everyone he spoke to, no one knew how to describe this person - now he knows that it is a 'she' - but they saw her everywhere. No one knew where she came from or really why she was there. Only that this person would be seen anywhere and everywhere that Shepard was. Whatever ship she was on or mission.

But that was all speculation. No one knew anything or could prove anything, that is.

Until today, it seems.

* * *

The Specter walks down the cargo bay toward Anderson, Shepard and two other humans, Alenko and Jenkins. His steps are slow, quiet and purposeful. Alenko and Jenkins were standing off to the side, looking around at anything but Shepard and Anderson who were staring at one another, whispering quietly to one another with hard looks on their faces.

Shepard's blue eyes flicker up and she lifts her head. Her bangs fall back a bit, revealing a large, jagged scar going from her temple all the way up to her hairline just above the center of her left eyebrow. Her bangs were strategically placed to hide the scar. The Specter would never claim to be an expert on humans, but she never struck him as the type of person who cared about appearances. He could be wrong, he wouldn't it put it past himself, but he's spent the better part of this last week studying her and other than hiding the scar on her face, she's never shown any signs, at least any that he would be able to understand, that she cared at all about her looks.

"Nihlus," Shepard says, tipping her head a bit in greeting, the hair sliding back into place over her scar. "We'll be closing in on drop point in about ten minutes."

Nihlus shakes his head. "I'm going alone on this one."

Her eyebrows pull together tightly. "How are you suppose to evaluate my performance if you aren't there to see it?"

Nihlus frowns a bit. Shepard tilts her head, obviously unfamiliar with the shift in his expression, not matter how minute it was. She's sharp. "Something tells me that this mission is no longer the simple pick up it was a few hours ago. It's a lot bigger than that. Maybe the next one will be better but this mission should just be completed."

"He's right," a female voice says, literally stepping out of the shadows next to him. Nihlus' entire body freezes in surprise, nonplussed. How in the world did she manage to get beside him? Alenko and Jenkins jump at the sound of her voice and sudden appearance, while Shepard and Anderson don't look affected in the slightest by her suddenly being there.

Because she's always there, a little voice whispers in the back of his mind. That's what Anderson was trying to tell him. She's always with Shepard.

"This mission isn't like the one you originally perceived it would be, David," the woman says, stepping closer. She doesn't spare a glance Nihlus' way. She covered in a dark brown cloak that goes all the way to her feet, obscuring her body shape and clothing, and a large hood pulled up over her head, hiding her eyes from view. She was shorter than all of them, even Jane.

She takes another step closer to Shepard and Anderson and it's only then that Nihlus realized, in disbelief and horror, that there was no sounds with her steps. It was completely silent. If she hadn't spoken, he wouldn't have known she was there.

"What do you mean?" Anderson asks, looking down at the shorter woman, his eyebrows pulled together.

The back hatch opens up and the woman walks over to the edge, stopping dangerously close to the drop. The cloak whips around behind her, fluttering in the breeze, as she tilts her head like she's listening to something.

"Who's that?" Jenkins asks, leaning closer to Alenko's side, his eyebrows pulled together.

Alenko squints at her somewhat side profile, as if trying to see something about her that isn't coming easily to him. "Um... I think... I think she's the ghost. The surprise crew member. Isn't she, captain?" He looks over at the older man.

But Anderson doesn't respond. It's the woman in question. "Who I am doesn't matter, Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko," the woman says, tilting her head to the side before turning around toward Shepard, Anderson and Nihlus. Her face is still obscured, hidden beneath the long hood, but there is a frown on her lips that belies any emotion that she appears to be trying to hide. "It is time. I feel it. Even someone with a low sensing ability like myself can feel it." A single, almost unnoticeable strand of human fur - hair? Was that what they called it again, Nihlus wondered - fell before the woman's face, dangling out in the open.

And it was the oddest shade of light pink.

"It's as I've been warning you about," she says, lowering her head a bit. "The time has come. The Reapers are here. The invasion has begun."


	2. Eden Prime

**Author's Note: Hello! So there is a bit of interest in this story, so I'm going to be moving forward with it! Thanks for reading thus far! I'm sorry about the wait! Let me know what you all think! I am still open to pairings! Enjoy!**

 **Warnings: OOCness, language, murder.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

 **Word Count: 3,946**

Jane hits something hard, nearly knocking the wind out of her. It was chilled but wrapped around her. The hit something hard before Jane feels the warm night air hits the back of her neck and tugs at her clothes. Jane opens her eyes as she wraps her arms around the thing holding onto her, touching something soft. She sees rocks whiz past them and then the night sky and landscape.

They land safely on the ground next to the wide opening. Jane quickly pulls back to see a beautiful woman staring back at her with wide, dazed green eyes. It was as if she was staring at Jane, but wasn't really seeing her. The woman had a shock of light pink hair that flowed around them a bit, but appeared to be wetted down but something that had a strange odor to it. It wasn't bad but it reminded Jane of a hospital.

She looks down into the hole for a moment, trying to see a ledge the beautiful woman could have jumped from and somehow saved her, but she couldn't see any. She looks back over at the woman, she's young and beautiful, probably only a few years older than Jane, but there was almost something doll-like in both her facial features and lack of emotion.

"Thank you for saving me..." Jane says softly, looking at the girl's light green eyes. "I don't know how to thank you enough... how..." She glances around for a moment. "How did you do that?"

The slightly older woman doesn't answer. She just stares forward without even the slightest shift in expression.

Jane puts her hand in front of the young woman's face, waving it back a forth a bit. "Hello? Can you hear me..?"

"..." The woman blinks slowly, green eyes slowly slide around them, taking in the sights a bit. Jane just sits in silence, watching as a degree of lucidness begins to return to the woman's face. When her eyes land on Jane, there is no sign of recognition. Not on Jane's part, either. This woman was beautiful, she had no doubt that she would remember a woman who looked like that.

"Who are you..?" The woman asks, her voice hoarse, sounding like she hasn't spoken in a long time.

"My name is Jane Shepard," Jane says, casting a glance over at the settlement before this terrible, broken look crosses her face and her eyes water before looking back over at the woman. "Are you... Are you part of the colony?"

The girl looks over at the darkened out collection of buildings. "Home?"

Jane nods. "Yes, did you live there, with us? I, um, don't remember ever seeing you there."

The pink haired woman looks back at the settlement again, blinking slowly before shaking her head. "No. I don't live there. I don't live here."

Jane blinks away some of her tears, rolling onto her hip to face the woman, leaning on one of her hands to keep balanced, letting the cool earth temper her heated flesh. "You don't live here? On Mindoir? Then how did you get here? On a ship?" Jane looks around, not seeing any ship silhouettes against the moonlight. "But where is it?"

The green eyed woman shakes her head slowly. "No. I was here, but I don't live here. This isn't my home. My home isn't here." Her eyebrows pull together tightly, as if trying to recall something that wasn't coming to her easily. She blinks rapidly, but appears unable to summon the information. She brings her hands up to her face and uses them to cover it, squeezing her eyes shut. "Home. Where is my home? Why can't I remember?" She starts to shake her entire body back and forth violently, sending bits of that strange liquid flying everywhere.

Jane blocks her face as a bit touches her bottom lip, quickly rubbing it away. It certainly didn't feel like water. It was almost like some sort of weird snot-like substance.

The younger girl reaches out and grabs the girl's arms, holding her into place. "Wait! Stop! Stop!" The woman starts to calm down, turning large, deeply haunted green eyes toward Jane. "There, there..." Jane says, feeling more in control of her own emotions having the other girl panicking. "See, it's okay. It's okay. I'm sure everything will come back to you. Shh, it's okay."

The girl stares at Jane, green eyes blasted wide as if seeing something horrible. Her lips tremble for a moment, eyes glazing over as a single word slipped past her lips.

"Reapers."

* * *

Shepard frowns, trying to keep the tension coiling in her gut from showing on her face. She takes a moment to quickly glance over at Anderson to see that his face was just as pale as she feared hers was. When they had heard about it... when she told them about the Reapers, a part of her wanted to believe her friend was delirious. That she had a dream that felt so real to her that she thought it was so, but it wasn't.

Jane was wrong, however. Her friend got that voice she usually got when she was dead serious about something. Which was, well, more than not, in her case. She's a very stern and blatant person. There isn't a lot of floweriness and sugar coating with her.

"What's the plan?" Shepard asks, crossing her arms over her chest, listening to the sound of her arm guards clacking against her breast plate.

The hooded figure stares out over the landscape whizzing by beneath her before looking back over at Shepard, Anderson and Nihlus from over her shoulder. "Stay here. I'm going to scout out the area."

"We can't do that," Shepard says immediately as her friend started to turn away, making her stop. "The colony is under attack, we have to help them. Not to mention the beacon, which was our main mission, is still planet-side. We have to get down there."

"The Reapers are-" the cloaked figure begins again but Nihlus cuts her off.

"Listen, I don't know what you are talking about but Shepard's right. This colony is under attack and we need to secure that beacon, by any means necessary," Nihlus says, strapping his pistol onto his side before walking over to the edge of the bay doors. Now standing right next to the stranger, Nihlus practically towers over her. She was shorter than the average asari. He knew that some humans could be pretty short, but he hadn't been around any that were as short as this girl was. At least, he never got this close.

"This beacon isn't important," the hooded figure says flatly. "Specter canadicy means nothing, Jane. Fuck it. We have to move in and destroy the Reaper that's here. It must be a scout. That means..." The woman pauses, turning back toward the terrain flying past them, hesitating for a moment. She tilts her head to the side, the hot air blowing in through the wide open doors pull at her heavy cloak.

"What?" Anderson asks, tilting his head to the side as well and stepping forward, the level of urgency in his voice is palpable.

"Drop point one: ETA ninety seconds," Joker says over the intercom.

"What are you thinking?" Shapard asks, taking a few steps closer.

"Something must be stopping them..." the hooded figure says, swaying back and forth in thought. "That's the only reason they would need a scout. Unless they feared we were more technologically advanced... no. No, that can't be right. That must mean those damn bugs actually did something useful." The woman barks a laugh, throwing her head back, yet the hood stays on. She turns to them, grinning. It's cold and cynical. "They blocked the way in. No wonder this cycle is overdo. They had to send a scout ahead of the invasion to travel the lightyears between us and dark space. This is _great._ "

Shepard squints at her long time friend. "What does..." her eyebrows pull together hard. "Wait, are you saying..?"

The woman shakes her head. "Never mind. I'll tell you about it later. For now," she looks up toward the colony. "I'm going to go say hello to that Reaper." With that, she jumps out of the Normandy.

"Wait!" Shepard races forward, leaning over the edge. "Sakura!" Someone bumps her shoulder, it's Nihlus.

"I'm going," Nihlus says. "I'm not sure what's going on with all of this, but we must secure that beacon. Your... friend may not care about being a Specter, but you should think for yourself, Shepard." He spares her a glance before jumping off the side as well.

Shepard shakes her head, giving Anderson a droll look before looking over at Kaidan Alenko and Richard Jenkins. "Come, gentlemen, we need to get a move on. Those two apparently don't care to wait for anyone. Let's go."

* * *

"Thank you for the assistance, ma'am," Ashley Williams says, nodding her head toward Shepard, Alenko and Jenkins. "Gentlemen."

"I'm glad you're alright, Williams," Alenko says, a single nod of the head.

"I think we are all a little grateful," Jenkins says, scratching the back of his head. "The Ghost has been blasting through everything in our path since we hit the ground. She... uh, she doesn't leave things half done, does she?"

Shepard shakes her head. "We can count our lucky stars that she is doing this because they were in _her_ way. If they were in _our_ way, she probably would have just left them for us to handle. Like with these Geth here," Shepard looks down at the ruined unit riddled with bullet holes with an uneasy frown. "Same with our Specter. It seems like neither of them are interested in waiting around to do... well, anything."

"What now, ma'am?" Alenko asks, looking over at Shepard with wide eyes.

Shepard looks around them for a moment. "Where is the beacon, Williams?" Shepard asks, looking over at her.

Williams points over to the ridge. "Last I saw, this morning the beacon was up there. I can lead the way, if you want." She rolls her shoulders back a bit, belying an ache that she has.

Shepard nods. "Yeah, let's go. Lead the way." Williams nods, waving for them to follow before heading up the next hill. Shepard presses her fingers against her earpiece. "Sakura, what is your location?"

"Smashing robots," Sakura says flatly. There is a loud explosion and a fizzling noise. "What do you need, Jane?"

"That's not a location, Sakura," Shepard says with a hint of mirth as they climb toward the beacon.

Sakura sighs. "I'm close to the landing pad and the Reaper. What do you want?"

"Come to the beacon, we need to proceed together," Shepard says. "And what about the colony? How is it?"

There's a pause. "Abandon," Sakura says. "And not from choice. I see spikes here. The colonists are being indoctrinated and changed into husks, Jane. It's too late, now. There may be some survivors, some that may have hidden, but I don't know if there will be many."

"Then try and find them all, Sakura, make sure they are all safe," Shepard says, following Williams up the hill. Her eyebrows are pulled together tightly. Not liking the sound of the way all of this is turning out. What a shit storm this has become.

"Jane, I don't think-"

"Now, Sakura," Shepard says firmly. "We have to secure the beacon and make sure to save as many of the colonists as we can. Once you are done with that, please locate my supposed Specter teacher. Overseer? Whatever."

"..." There is a pause. Then a sigh. "Very well, Jane. I will start locating the colonists and then Specter Kryik." The line went dead.

Shepard's shoulders droop, for just a moment, before she had to duck behind cover as more geth round the corner and start shooting at them. Shepard lets out a slow, deep breath muttering, quietly to herself, "Thank you, Sakura."

"Who was that?" Williams asks, looking over at Alenko and Jenkins. The latter of the two raises his eyebrows high and steps closer, as if it would somehow make it hard for Shepard to hear them when he speaks.

"That's the Ghost! She's been on the Normandy since forever, I hear!"

Alenko rolls his dark eyes before glancing around cover to fire at the geth. "I wouldn't go that far, Jenkin," Alenko says, leaning back behind cover again. He looks over at them. "Apparently, she's a good friend of the Commander's. Although, I don't think she's part of the Alliance, so it seems pretty hush hush," Alenko says, far quieter than Jenkins, but still not enough for Shepard not to have heard.

"Listen, you three," Shepard says, turning to look at her three underlings. "I know there is a lot going on right now that you guys don't know about but I promise you, everything is going to be explained one way or another, you just have to be patient."

"Yes ma'am," all three soldiers say, snapping to attention. Shepard nods, turning her attention forward.

"Let's destroy some geth and get a move on. Those two definitely won't wait for us, given the chance," Shepard says before jumping out from behind cover to biotically charge toward the geth.

* * *

Sakura has located all of the colonists - at least all of those that weren't really hiding well so that she just had to do a thorough once over the colony to find them - and ensured they were all safe before moving on. It didn't take too long but it was long enough that she was nervous. She didn't want to leave the Reaper alone any longer than she had. She could understand where Jane was coming from, and to some degrees could appreciate it, but this Reaper being here alone was a lot more telling than she originally thought.

There had to be a very good reason why this Reaper was here alone. There had to be a reason why this cycle was over do. The bugs had to of done something that slowed them down so significantly. Sakura couldn't help but wonder what it was, though. They had to of done something. The Reapers wouldn't just be lolly-gagging, for the sake of doing so. There had to be a reason for it.

Sakura makes her way toward the Reaper, pausing when something on the landing pad caught her attention. The first thing she saw from atop of one of the buildings a few yards away, was a man hunched behind a bunch of crates. He was shifting, trying to see something beyond it without being seen himself. Sakura raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was doing back there when the Reaper attacked.

Sakura's attention turns to spot a turian. Sakura could tell immediately that it wasn't Nihlus. Where the Spectre had dark brown plates with white tribal marks that was actually an appealing contrast, this turian was a very pale color, practically luminescent in the bright sunlight. Sakura couldn't see any tribal marks on him when he turned her way a bit, so if he had them, they were as pale as his plates.

Sakura stoops low, turning her head to the side to stare at the other turian. "What are you doing here..?" Sakura asks slowly, eyes narrow. "Who are you?" She raises her hand to touch her earpiece about to call out to Nihlus, but pauses when she spots him round the corner and goes down to the landing pad, sparing a few glances up toward the Reaper but Sakura can't tell his expression.

The pink haired girl couldn't quite place it but there was something about this other turian that just didn't look right.

She spots a few husk spikes, but they don't react as Nihlus walks by, it's probably too soon for them to wake up, just yet. Sakura can't forget about them. That will be a nasty bite in the ass if they catch her off guard.

Her green eyes rise to see the two turian's talking and for a moment, Sakura suspected that Nihlus must have known this other turian. Sakura jumps down, to the pad, landing like a feather behind the man. He was fidgety and twitchy, Sakura figured he was too much of a risk to keep awake, lest he startle the husks awake, so she quickly knocks him out and hides him in the shade. She'll have to remember to wake him up later. For now, it's the fact that he's hidden behind a bunch of crates that he's managed to stay alive.

Sakura's eyes slide over toward Nihlus and the silver turian in time to see the white turian bring up a pistol and aim it at the back of Nihlus's head when the other turian turned away. Sakura moved as fast as her muscles allowed, but it wasn't fast enough. As soon as she grabbed the barrel, the pistol went off and while she moved it out of the way a bit, she still heard it hit Nihlus behind her.

Nihlus let out a cry of pain before dropping but Sakura didn't have time to check and see if he was alright. Standing this close to the other turian, Sakura realized immediately what was wrong with him - why he looked so strange to her even at the distance they were at.

He was already being indoctrinated. She could tell by the extensive cybernetics beneath his face plates and even in his eyes were starting to get the glow about them. He wasn't completely indoctrinated, as far as Sakura could tell, but all the thoughts in his head certainly couldn't all be his own, that's for sure.

Sakura's attention is split between hearing Nihlus groan lightly behind her, and the fact that this turian wasn't just an ordinary turian. There is some strength behind his moves that surprises Sakura. Her eyes narrow and she ducks under another strike, using her leg to swipe his feet out from under him. As the turian falls he manages to pull out another gun, firing it off right past Sakura's face. She had to jump out of the way in order to avoid getting her face burned by the molten bullet.

In the time it took for her to get out of the way, the turian was already up and moving again, heading toward the other side of the platform, not even pausing to look down at Nihlus, who Sakura assumed was once his friend. She can't imagine they are going to be too friendly after this.

"Jane," Sakura says, about to make chase, "Spectre Kryik is down. There is another turian here, he tried to shoot Kryik in the back of the head but he missed. I'm in pursuit now. The target is heading to the opposite side of the landing pad."

"Sakura," Jane's voice cuts into her earpiece, "stay with Spectre Kryik! See if you can save him!"

Sakura frowns, watching the other turian get further and further away. "Jane, if I stop to help Kryik the other turian is going to get away."

"And if you chase after the other turian, Nihlus will die," Jane says flatly. "We are closing in. I can see you on the - Sakura! The husks!"

Sakura spins around to see one of the husks rushing up the platform toward her, slowing down when Nihlus let out a groan. It deviates its attention toward him. Sakura hesitates for a moment before turning around and racing toward the husk, leaping into the air and kneeing it into the face, sending it flying away. She can see Jane, Alenko, Jenkins and another woman running toward them, guns poised and ready to open fire once they got close enough.

Another husk scrambles past the one that Sakura kicked over and stretches it arms out toward her, letting out this horrible, ear splitting screech. Sakura leans over Nihlus's practically using her body as a shield. Her arms on either side of his head before bringing both legs to one side of his body, lifting the one furthest away from Nihlus's - her left one - and kicks the gut of the approaching husk before rolling onto her body, then up onto both feet. She pulls out two kunai sending both of them flying into the heads of the husks, killing them immediately.

Shepard runs around the corner, the three Alliance troops on her heels. She opens her mouth, about to say something but Sakura points the way the turian went.

"Go, I'll need privacy to care for him," she says flatly.

"Do you want me to leave someone here with you?" Jane asks, power walking past her.

"No, take them all with you," Sakura says, turning back toward Nihlus, who was clutching his bleeding shoulder. "You will need them." She squints up at the hulking machine blocking out the sun. "You're heading toward a Reaper."

Jane hesitates, looking up at hulking mass before nodding and waving her hand for the other three to follow. Sakura turns to watch them go, right as the Reaper begins to take off. The two kilometer monster rockets toward the sky before vanishing into the atmosphere. Most ships that large would be crushed by their own weight and mass by the gravity.

But this wasn't just a ship. It was a being. It was alive. Sakura's not sure if it knows she's there - although she does doubt it - now, but it will know soon enough. Sakura wasn't going to stop until every single one of the Reapers were destroyed. She was going to make them pay for what they did. But revenge is sweet when given ample time to fester.

Nihlus groans in pain, moving over to his side. Sakura lowers down next to Nihlus, forcing him onto his back.

"Stop whining," Sakura mumbles, unlocking the suit clips and pulling off the chest plate. She tosses the armor to the side and looks down at the wound, forcing his taloned hand away so that nothing could obstruct her vision. Dark blue blood pooling around the wound.

Sakura tilts her head to the side. "Oh, so that's why you're in so much pain. I thought Spectres were suppose to be stronger than a single shot to the person, but I see he hit a nerve cluster. That has to hurt like a son of a bitch."

Nihlus groans again, mumbling something that her translator couldn't decipher.

Sakura puts her hand over the hole and sends healing chakra to it. "Don't worry, unluckily for you, you will live," Sakura says, watching as Nihlus's pained green eyes lower to the light green glow of her hands.

"What..?" he rasps.

"I can heal it before you," Sakura says, "but that means you will probably live long enough to see the horrible future that is to come."

 _For the Reviewers:_

 _1\. DLM4: I was thinking the same thing. This is going to be a little bit of a twist on Sakura's character that might seem a little odd, but I promise there is reason for it. Thank you for giving it a chance!_

 _2\. HaveManners: Thank you! Mass Effect is actually one of my favorite games out there. I've played through them so many times, I've lost count. They are just so good! The goal is to end up going through all three of the games. There will be time skips here and there, but I will try and play out through most of them with my own version and twist. :3 Hm, that is a very interesting pairing I hadn't thought about before. Not that I mind, but I will definitely see how I feel once I start writing them together in the second segment. :D_

 _3\. Guest: Yeah, the idea occurred to me and when I went to see if there was any other stories out there that caught my interest and would give me a good baseline to start at, I realized that there wasn't much material. I kind of hope this encourages more writers into taking it to the next level and writing a better story then the one I'm hoping to produce! I just love Sakura. I'm not sure why, or really where the love came from, but it is strong. XD_

 _4\. Indecisive Bob: Sakura definitely isn't dead. The beginning of this chapter is starting to take a glimpse into how Sakura got to Mindoir and how she managed to find Shepard. Not a lot, but it all comes with time. :D Hmm, interesting. Why would Sakura be on a strange planet and not with other shinobi? Hm.. I wonder. XD_


	3. The Not-So Problem

**Author's Note: Hey y'all! I am so sorry for the long ass wait! I totally didn't mean to step away from this story, but I am back and I haven't forgotten about it. I just love hearing what y'all have to say, it really helps encourage me to push on. As I'm sure you noticed, because Sakura is here, the continuity of the original timeline won't be the exact same, but there will be some similarities and differences, so keep an open mind! I am open to pairings, so let me know what you would like! Thank you all for the support thus far! Let me know what you think! Enjoy!**

 **Warnings: OOCness, language, murder.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing!**

 **Word Count: 4,540**

Sakura presses her hand against the rough plates on Nihlus's shoulder, forcing her chakra into his body to quicken his healing. Nihlus looks at her through bleary green eyes. Every time he would try and turn away from her hands, she would have to pause in her healing to push him back onto his back. She was getting annoyed quickly.

"What are you doing to me..?" Nihlus whispers, groaning a bit. He predator green eyes flicker around wildly, as if slightly delirious.

"I'm healing you," Sakura says simply, a hint of annoyance in her voice before pulling her hand back. "Here, sit up." She pulls him up so that the blue blood pooling around his wound can slide down his chest and arm, thankfully for him not staining the pitch black under suit. It's not seen but in the light, Sakura can see it wetting down his suit as he bleeds. His blood is also dying her hands a dark blue color.

"Is that some kind of biotic ability..?" Nihlus asks, looking down at Sakura's glowing green hand now that he's sitting up, leaning his weight on his other arm. Sakura doesn't respond. Nihlus looks down at the bridge of her nose, her eyes obscured by the hood she was still wearing. "How are you doing that..?"

"Are you in shock?" She asks, glaring up at him with annoyed green eyes. "You are asking a lot of questions. Man, turians really are delicate flowers. It's just a nerve cluster, get over it." She rolls her eyes and looks down at the wound. She fixes the nerves, soothing the throbbing pain, before sealing the hole in his shoulder up, all in the course of about ten minutes, thankfully after she snapped at him, it was done in silence. She pulls her hands back, looking down at them for a moment, stained in dark blue blood, even more so now than when she started. It's not just her hands but her wrists. There is an intricate latticework of a blood trail drying down her arm beneath her cloak.

She waves her hands around a bit before wiping them off on her cloak. She scoots to his side, grabbing his arm and lifting it so that it's parallel to the ground and gives it a full rotation in it's socket. "How does it feel?" Sakura asks, simply. "Is there pain or tenderness? Can you tell the difference?" She looks at Nihlus, seeing him staring past her towards colony she doubts he can see. "Hello?"

"He tried to kill me," Nihlus says, green eyes wide. "Saren... he betrayed me."

"Shit," Sakura mumbles, staring at him. "You are in shock, aren't you? Damnit. Turians are a real pain."

"He..." Nihlus blinks slowly, his voice soft. "He was my mentor. My friend."

Sakura sighs. "He betrayed you," Sakura says flatly. "That's what the Reapers do. They turn friends against friends. Family against family. Lovers against lovers." An image of blood, screaming - a woman - in her ear. Sakura quickly forces the image away. She didn't want to think about that. She didn't want to see it anymore. It wasn't something that she could change now, so it was best to see it as no longer necessary to dwell on it. It would change nothing.

"I don't..." Nihlus says slowly, blinking dazedly. "I can't believe it..."

Sakura leans down so that he can look into one of her eyes. Green on green. "Specter Kryik," Sakura says strongly, using a commanding voice to try and appeal to his militaristic instincts. It gets a reaction. His eyes focus on her a bit more solidly. "I need you to focus on me now. This is just the beginning. This is a single reaper that's doing this, but there are more. They are coming. You have to get ahold of yourself now."

"Yes..." Nihlus says softly. He nods once, then again, and that seems to knock some sense into him. "Okay. I'm here. I'm sorry."

Sakura helps him stand up before grabbing his armor. She helps him put it on, sort of amused watching him tentatively move his shoulder around, as if he couldn't believe that he was no longer in pain. This is the first time she's actually healed a turian in practice but she spent the better part of the last sixteen years trying to understand the in-depth biology of all of the other races out there. She didn't know when she would need it, just that she eventually would.

And she was right.

She used to pride herself in her versatile and copious interests in different subjects and things of the like because she always has a little bit of information to offer any sort of situation and if she doesn't know anything concrete, she prides herself in being worldly enough to be able to offer up educated guesses or supplementary information that would hopefully help her and her friends, companions, etc. in whatever situation that they were in.

When she awoke and regained her memories, she knew that she had to brush up on her knowledge of human anatomy because it's a bit different than what she is used to, but also about the other races as well. She got all of the data pads she could to learn up the anatomy of all of the races as in-depth as she knew her own and that of the new version of humans and the ones that Sakura is used it.

No, there wasn't a lot of difference in them. Sakura is used to humans with larger lungs, denser muscles and bones, and a special set of muscles on the legs that allows them to move at the speeds that they do. Humans from Jane's time no longer had those special muscles in the legs or even fully functioning chakra networks. Jane is one of the few people that Sakura has seen that still has a fully functioning chakra network. She had about as much chakra as Sakura, which is impressive considering that there was thousands of years that separated them but her chakra is altered to manifest itself as what they call biotics.

Sakura didn't like biotics. It was an unusual way for these people to use their chakra. While the asari has very powerful chakra, they are manipulating it as 'biotic' power and only using the yang half of it. It was such a poor use of their power and she didn't like it. It wasn't her place to tell them what was wrong with how they live their lives and treated their bodies - even though she is completely certain she could teach them how to better themselves - but that wasn't the reason that she was there, and even if it was, she is certain she didn't have enough breath in her lungs, or beats of her heart to be able to accurately explain everything wrong with everything that they are doing.

Maybe being an outsider looking in without any desire to conform is the reason she feels this way. She doesn't know.

Sakura follows after the wounded turian - moreso his pride than his body now - to the tram and then across the way toward the beacon. Sakura knows that she has healed the wound on Nihlus's shoulder well, but he is still probably feeling ghost pain and it's not hard to guess that his anxiety over the recent events - his one time friend and mentor betraying him, his wound and what happened to the colony is causing him a lot of pain.

Turians are interesting in the fact that their neurological network doesn't allow them to handle stress very well, as an overall race. Humans, over the years, have learned how to build up their immunity to the side affects that extreme stress puts on the mind and body, whereas turians have simply built coping methods rather than adapt to the growing levels of stress in their environments. It's interesting, and something Sakura would consider an evolutionary flaw in the turian's design. What good is a warrior race that can't take stress? No good, that's what.

As Sakura and Nihlus get closer and closer to the beacon, passing the four deactivated bombs the Nihlus insisted on checking each one to ensure they were properly disables, they hearing a loud explosion coming from the beacon.

Sakura's keen sense on Jane goes haywire and she immediately leaves Nihlus's side, who was double checking the very last bomb to ensure it was properly deactivated like all the rest, and goes racing toward her, flying over the railing, down a story and half, to where the sizzling, sparking beacon sits at the end of the platform with an unmoving Jane laying on her side a few feet away. Alenko, the woman and Jenkins were all crowding around her, checking to see if she was alright, calling out to her. Sakura easily lands on the ground and quickly pushes them out of the way, dropping down next to her, not minding the beacon in the slightest.

She moves Jane over onto her back and slowly, carefully, checking her friend's body to make sure that nothing is broken. There isn't. She summons up her green chakra and brings it parallel to Jane's body and slowly scans every inch of her skin to see if there is any damage. There isn't, but there is rapid brain activity and the neurons are firing rapidly there. She's out cold, and Sakura can guess she's probably dreaming very deeply.

"What is that?" Sakura asks, looking over at the blown out beacon. "What was it suppose to be?"

"It's the beacon," Williams says. Sakura rolls her eyes where no one could see it.

"Never mind," she mumbles, feeling a blast of wind against her back as the Normandy hovers over head. If this beacon is some kind of device that holds information, than it's safe to say that whatever was stored inside is probably going through her mind, on full blast. Sakura sends healing chakra into her head to try and ease the firing neurons, but that didn't really work. Thankfully, Jane's mind was holding up so Sakura had to settle with letting whatever was happening to just run it's coarse and try and pick up the pieces when it's over.

Sakura didn't know what to expect, but she was going to keep Jane safe, no matter what.

* * *

Jane opens her eyes a small crack, the harsh light in the medbay stabbing at her retina. She squeezes her eyes shut for a moment, trying to ease the pain. She takes a few deep breaths before finally gritting her teeth through the pain and opening her eyes. She sits up slowly, being mindful of how her body feels, not wanting to cause any more damage than what may already be done. There is a very real ache in her back, head and shoulders, but nothing else. Everything else feels fine to her, so she's probably safe to sit up.

"Fuck," she mumbles under her breath. She rubs roughly at her forehead for a moment as she rises into a sitting position. It feels like her head is splitting, but she can't lay down any longer. She has to get up.

"Looks like you are starting to feel better."

Jane looks up slowly to see Sakura standing a few feet in front of her, hood still pulled up over her head. She shifts her weight from one hip to the other, her long cloak swaying a bit at the movement.

"That is a bold statement," Jane says dryly, rubbing at her head again. She sits up slowly, noting that Sakura would have stopped her if she was seriously hurt. "What happened?"

"I was hoping that you would be able to tell me," Sakura says. "Your Alliance friends are all spineless. No one wants to own up to it."

"Can you blame them? You terrify them," Jane says, rubbing her head, trying to ignore the pain throbbing there. She sits up and swings her legs over the side. "We lost Saren, but managed to get to the beacon, but he must have already used it." She presses at her forehead, looking pained. "I was pulled in by the beacon and I saw something. I saw... death. Destruction, maybe..." She shakes her head. "I'm not really sure."

Sakura stares at Jane for a moment, considering. "That was the Reapers. This must be some kind of warning from the bugs."

"Why do you have to be so disrespectful?" Jane asks, rubbing roughly at her head. " The Protheans saved your life, you said so yourself."

"It's because of those damn bugs that my people are extinct," Sakura hisses as the door to the medbay opens up. Chakwas, Anderson and Alenko come in at the same time, looking between Sakura and Shepard. Alenko looks weary at Sakura, seemingly able to feel the anger rolling off the hooded figure in waves. His stride slows down, dark eyes widening.

"What's going on?" Chakwas asks, her dark eyebrows pulling together.

Sakura shakes her head, eyes still locked onto Jane, who's glaring back at her. "Don't think those bugs are heroes. They aren't. Not to my people. They are the ones that cursed us to extinction."

"They may not be your hero, Sakura," Jane says, annoyed, "but they are mine. They brought us you. If they hadn't, then we may not survive this."

"You still might not," Sakura snaps, then stops. Her rigid stance relaxes completely and she bows her head. "I..." She says slowly, bowing her head further. "I didn't mean that."

Shepard rubs at her forehead roughly, the annoyed look on her face settles. "I know. I'm sorry. I said too much. I know you would rather not be, but I'm glad that you are here, if that matters."

Sakura doesn't respond. She just moves to the wall on the other side of the room and leans against it. Her cloak is stained with dark blue blood that slightly discolors the dark fabric in the bright light, and her fingers and hands are stained a tinted blue color. Jane looks up at her childhood savior, shoulder slumping a bit.

"Did you save Nihlus?"

"Spector Kryik will live," Sakura says curtly.

"Where is he?" Jane asks, looking around the other beds, but not seeing the seven foot tall anywhere in the room.

Chakwas tuts, shaking her head. "He's pacing about the ship, lost in thought. Sakura managed to heal his wounds perfectly, so there was no need to force him into staying in the medbay." She doesn't looking all that happy about it. It looks like she wanted him to stick around a bit longer just to ensure that he was alright but he was fighting her every step of the way.

Jane shakes her head. Her brain is splitting too much for her to care right now what he's doing. He's alive, that's what matters for now. She's sure there has got to be some sort of story about all of this, but she'll wait until she feels a little bit better before she goes trudging through that muddy mess. She will just deal with all of that when she's feeling better.

"I got a brief report about what happened," Anderson says, stepping between the two girls, eyeing both of them before turning his full attention to Jane. "Now I want to hear your side of it."

"As you know, Sakura and Spector Kryik ran off ahead," Jane says. "We ran into Williams being chased down by Geth and I sent Sakura to find the remaining colonists - "

"-I did," Sakura says. "There were some survivors."

Jane nods, looking at the cloaked figure. "Thank you." Then she looks back at Anderson. "Something happened, another turian was there on Eden Prime, he shot Nihlus," she looks over at Sakura, "to kill, right?"

Sakura nods. "Yeah. He was aiming for the back of his head. If I hadn't have grabbed the barrel at the last moment, he'd probably be dead."

"Then Nihlus owes you his life," Anderson says, looking over at Sakura. Chakwas walks over to Jane and summons up the orange Omni-tool into her arm and waves it around in front of Jane, then studies the readings it gives her, quietly.

Even with only her mouth showing, she doesn't seem flattered by the sentiment. "Don't mention it," she says blandly, probably meaning her words. "Saving him wasn't my choice, nor was it a mercy."

Kaidan is honestly shocked by her words, his dark eyes widening at how callous they were. His eyes flicker over to Shepard to see her glaring, annoyed at the cloaked figure while Anderson looks like he understands, nodding mutely.

"Whether or not in either regard," Anderson says diplomatically, "you did save Nihlus's life, and once the shock settles, I'm sure he'll seek you out to thank you, or scorn you. That's how that works. I believe you did a good deed, for whatever reason you did it. So thank you."

Sakura shrugs noncommittal, not responding. Anderson doesn't appear as though he expected her to.

"The turian escaped and then I was pulled into the beacon," Shepard says, finally finishing rubbing at her forehead. It's a blotchy red now from her constantly rubbing at it.

"How did it even activate?" Anderson asks.

Kaidan finally speaks up. "It was my fault, Captain. I was a little too close to the beacon and probably activated some kind of field around it and it started to pull me in. Commander Shepard pulled me out of the way. She probably saved my life." He turns dark eyes toward Shepard to convey how appreciative he is to her for what she did for him.

Jane gives him a kind, half smile, still feeling the throbbing in her head. Sakura looks between Jane and Kaidan, tilting her head to the side for a moment before looking away again, letting out a low huff.

"Don't worry about it, Kaidan," Jane says, rolling her shoulders back. "I know that you would have done the same."

Kaidan smiles faintly and looks away, slight coloring in his cheeks.

"The beacon was destroyed and the colony lays in ruins with minimal survivors, Nihlus almost lost his life and was close to being killed by a fellow Specter, and now we've got a Reaper out there, running a muck. What a mess," Anderson grumbles.

Shepard perks up, locking eyes with Sakura for a moment before looking over at Anderson. "What do you mean by fellow Spector? The turian that shot Nihlus..."

The door to the medbay opens up and Nihlus comes walking in. "Saren Arterius." He walks right up to Jane, looking down with narrow predatory green eyes, his mandibles pressed tightly to his cheeks. He spit the name like it was laced with poison. "He was my friend, my mentor, a fellow Specter. He betrayed me. He betrayed everyone."

"Not to make light of his actions," Sakura says, "but that is what the Reapers do. They get into your head and turn you against those that you love. I wouldn't be too broken up over it, he's nearly gone as it is."

"You mean he's being indoctrinated?" Anderson asks, his eyebrows pulling together tightly. Sakura nods, easily.

"What does that mean?" Nihlus asks. "What is going on? I keep hearing that, these Reapers? What are they?" He looks around at all the people in the room. Chakwas and Alenko both looked like neither knew the answer to that. Nihlus looks a bit flustered by that, his mandibles fluttering a bit. Jane watches the action but doesn't recognize what the action means.

"The Reapers are the ones that wiped out the bugs," Sakura says.

Nihlus looks over at her, seeing as Anderson and Jane both remained quiet. "Bugs? Like the Rachni?"

Sakura shakes her head. "No, your people called them Protheans. To us, they were just bugs," she says simply.

Nihlus walks over to her slowly, his head tilting to the side. "What are you talking about? What does this have to do with the Protheans? With Saren?"

"The Reapers," Sakura says, pushing away from the wall and looking up at the tall alien. "They are what connects us all. They wiped out the Protheans fifty thousand years ago, and the one your best friend flew away from Eden Prime on is merely the prelude to their return. And when they do, galactic annihilation. Just like with the bugs."

Nihlus turns away, green eyes flickering back and forth quickly, trying to mentally work out what was going on in his head. Trying to make sense of what he was being told.

"And Saren?" he asks, looking back at Sakura. "What does Saren have to do with this?"

"Somehow, he came into contact with this Reaper and it's been taking hold of his mind using a form of mind control. Indoctrination, the bugs had called it. Spend too much time around them and they worm their way into your mind and bend your whim to their own. They turn you against your friends, you loved ones, your race. It's all over after that."

"I don't understand," Nihlus says.

"Let me paint the picture for you," Sakura says, stepping closer to the turian, then looking around at the humans in the room. "When we get to the Citadel, Jane will stand before the Council and explain to them that not only is Saren a fucking trader and should be blasted out the nearest airlock if he's dumb enough to show his face anywhere in Citadel control space, but that there is a massive army of killer robot making their way to us as we speak and we either need to ban together to destroy them, or everyone will die. Simple as that."

"You say that," Jane says, "but it's not that easy. I believe you, Sakura. I know what you say is the truth, but other people need proof, they aren't just going to take your word for it."

"We will find a way to convince them," Anderson says, but not sounding so convincing.

"Saren was the top Specter," Nihlus says, crossing his arms over his chest. "They aren't going to just believe that their top Specter turned on them so easily."

"Even with your word?" Jane asks, eyebrows pulled together tightly. "He was going to shoot you in the back of the head if Sakura hadn't have stepped in. He would have killed you!"

Nihlus flinches, reaching up and touching his shoulder for a moment, the nerve cluster there tenderly, feeling the ghost pain there. "I know and I'll do everything I can to convince them, but they are going to need proof. And an eye-witness report from someone who technically doesn't exist won't do anything, either." Nihlus looks down at Sakura, who shrugs nonchalantly.

"How do we find something like that?" Alenko asks. "Proof that Saren is working with both the Geth and the Reapers?"

Jane groans. "That's what we are going to have to find out, I guess." She rubs at her forehead again.

* * *

Shepard, Alenko, Jenkins, Williams, Anderson, Udina and Kryik all stand before the Council, looking up at the three councilors and the huge image of Saren, who is staring at Nihlus, as if trying to work out how the other turian was not only alive, but standing without any relevant pain to be seen. Nihlus is growing, using his subvocals, staring up at the hologram of the other turian, revealing his pain and his anger at the other.

Even in the jarred frequency, he hoped that his onetime mentor could hear it, could feel his anger and pain somehow.

On one hand, he wanted to be angry and hate the turian before him, hate him for his actions and blame him solely and wholly for them, but on the other hand, he wanted to believe that his onetime friend and mentor wouldn't just betray him for no reason. That maybe, somehow, there was still goodness in him. That the bond that they had - their friendship - wasn't just _nothing_.

But he wasn't sure how much of that he believed. How much he wanted to believe. Giant machines trying to destroy everyone? He wasn't sure just how ready he was for that one.

But if they are telling the truth...? Can he really risk not believing them? Not believing the girl that somehow saved his life? Healed his wound in such a way that now, only hours later, he doesn't even feel a thing? He wasn't sure how she did it, but she did. She saved his life and even if she's brushing it off like she couldn't care less about him being alive - or perhaps she honestly didn't, he was no good at reading humans, especially since he could only see the lower half of her face - but he still owes her for saving him.

They stand up there, arguing with the Council and Saren and "how am I suppose to defend myself against dreams? And Nihlus, it was a firefight, anything could have happened with your back turned. Have you learned nothing in your time as a Specter?" and the anger that came from all of that. Sakura turns away from where she's hiding in the darkness to see the turian from earlier. The C-Sec cop that wanted to take Saren down. That believed that Saren was up to no good and needed to be stopped.

He had very keep senses.

He was... interesting, to say the least.

He was someone that Sakura was going to keep her eyes on. Same with Alenko, Williams, Jenkins and Kryik. They all had something about them that was... unique. Sakura is already starting to see the polarizing affect. People are starting to gravitate toward Jane, just as Sakura was suspecting that they would. Jane had a huge role to play in battling the Reapers, she was going to need all the help she can get to take them down.

Jane will succeed where the bugs failed. Where the bugs made Sakura and her people fail. Jane will kill all the Reapers. Sakura knows it.

Small fry like Saren? Sakura will take care of Saren. She'll gut him alive if she has to. Jane can't waste her time on someone like him. Sakura can, though, and swiftly. All she needs is to get her hands on him. Then Saren Arterius is dead.

 _For the Reviewers:_

 _1\. HaveManners: Thank you! I am so super sorry about the wait! I will still give it so though, no worries. I know, I loved Thane so much, I cried when he died._

 _2\. Y: I highly suggest playing it. The games are so good, I just love them so much. Yeah, I like Nihlus too. He's going through a lot and is going to be turbulent, personality wise, but that's going to be everyone. They are about to launch into something terrible, something that no amount of prep is going to affectively assist them in. As for Sakura's past, we've come to learn a little bit more, but more is to come._

 _3\. : Thanks? :3_

 _4\. Guest: I understand the continuity is a bit skewed, but Sakura hasn't exactly figured out what's going on. She thinks she does, but she could still be wrong. I wouldn't take all of Sakura's assumptions about the Reaper's current, speculative actions at face value. She isn't all knowing. XD Even if this version of her wants to be. Thank you!_

 _5\. Hefster: Thank you!_


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